Sallie Mae Now Offers More than Just School Loans

If you are like many of the people who have graduated or left college, the name Sallie Mae sends chills up your spine. Sallie Mae is one of the leading companies that offers loan to students going to college so they can pay their tuition and other expenses. For years after leaving college, the Sallie Mae bill haunts the mailboxes and budget lists of thousands of people.

But the student loan giant is now offering something that is less scary – certificates of deposit. In addition to student loans, Sallie Mae CDs is a step in the direction of offering various financial products for consumers. Currently, Sallie Mae is offering three types of CDs – a 12-month CD, 36-month CD and a 60-month CD. With the longer term CDs come higher interest rates, which is fairly typical of most CD accounts. As of July 2010, Sallie Mae is offering a 1.55 interest rate for 12-month CDs and a 3 percent interest rate on 60-month CDs. Those are very respectable rates when compared to other CD rates across the country.

Sallie Mae is also offering the opportunity to choose how often you take the interest payments from your CD. You can either take your payments each month, every quarter, every year or you can simply wait unto the CD matures before collecting any of the interest. This is going to be one thing that separates a Sallie Mae CD account from the other banks and their CD accounts.

If a Sallie Mae CD account sounds like something you would be interested in, you can simply go to the company’s website and sign up for one in just a few minutes. There is a four-step process to purchase a Sallie Mae CD and there is no minimum deposit or monthly fees if you sign up with Sallie Mae. Another great thing is that Sallie Mae does not charge a penalty for withdrawing your money early. You only have to pay a fee on the amount of money you take out of the CD early. Also, when your CD gets close to maturity, you will have the option of automatically renewing it or you can roll it into another CD without doing anything. The money is insured by the FDIC so you can invest in Sallie Mae CDs with confidence.